Here’s why Apple will own e-Books.
Stanza, arguably the best e-book reader on the iPhone/iPod Touch can buy mainstream content through Fictionwise, an online e-book site.
Fictionwise purchased eReader.com some time back and, while (in theory) purchases from Fictionwise and eReader can be merged into a single “bookshelf,” both sites still operate independently. AFAIK, there is no obvious way to purchase ebooks for Stanza through eReader’s website. In fact, I eReader doesn’t even include the iPhone in it’s list of supported devices.
Fictionwise and eReader are both owned by Barnes & Noble, who has yet another e-book app for iPhone that purchases through their own store separately from either Fictionwise and eReader.
Stanza is owned by Amazon and will read Kindle formatted content but cannot purchase Kindle e-books from the Kindle store.
In summary: the best e-book reader on the iPhone cannot purchase from the purported largest e-book catalog despite being owned by the group who owns said catalog. Instead, the largest catalog available to said best e-book reader is owned by a competitor who, in turn, also doesn’t eat their own dog food.
One ring to rule them all indeed.